If you're a regular reader of the L.A.W.L., you know I've advocated for for some time the need for Cumberland County to proceed with regular, scheduled property value reassessments (Link, Link, Link, Link, Link).
In short, regular property assessment keeps taxes equitable. If the common level ratio, a metric used to gauge, for all intents and purposes, how fair the current property tax is for all property owners in a county, falls below 0.85, it means that tax relief must be granted to applicants.
When that happens, blocks of tax revenue evaporate. When that revenue disappears, agencies funded by those revenues, like local municipalities and school districts, must make up the revenue by either raising taxes or reducing services. It's a simple equation.
Regular assessments, though, keep the common level ratio above 0.85. They spread the tax burden evenly among large, monied property owners and those at the bottom of the economic ladder.
While it hasn't yet agreed to return to scheduled assessments, the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners last week voted 2-1 to order the first assessment since 2002. Commissioner Gary Eichelberger cast the dissenting vote, and was quoted in the Friday Patriot-News article as saying:
"I think we should wait a year. I believe there are too many unanswered questions. I believe there's too much uncertainty about where the economy is going."
The majority of county residents have no doubt about the economy's direction. Gas now costs more than $3.15 a gallon, and the price of a gallon of milk has risen by 15% in just 12 months (Link).
The time to do something about the looming loss of property tax revenue is now.
I salute Commissioners Bruce Barclay and Rick Rovegno for having the chutzpah to make an unpopular vote which, short term, will raise the property tax rates for about a third of county residents, but long term will secure tax revenue for local governmental agencies from Shippensburg to Wormleysburg allowing them to provide much needed service for county residents.
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